Inspired

It Will Soon Be Gone

…September, that is.  It’s hard to believe that it came and went so quickly.  We had a very rainy month here on the west coast which is quite unusual for this time of year.  September is usually one of our nicest months.

The forecast for the week in this part of the world is for sun, sun, sun and even more sun, so we’ll be sure to make the best of it. 

I always find it interesting to hear what others are dealing with in the way of weather…California has been in a heat wave and my friend Martie announced that it was 116 degrees at 5 pm a few days ago where she lives (in the desert).  Others “down under” are finding the first signs of spring while we watch for golden hues to appear.

Cycles….life is all about cycles.

Signs of fall on the island…morning mists resting on the ocean, pumpkin fields getting “orangier” by the day, pots of purple, gold and bronze chrysanthemums sitting on doorsteps, school buses chugging up country roads and juicy Honey Crisp apples in the markets (and dripping down my chin as I bite into them!)

 

Autumn blessings to all of you and thank you so much for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments…they are so appreciated.

Encourage each other.

Perspectives

 

I’m travelling right now…visiting with my dad…and as we were sailing across the newly named “Salish Sea”, I couldn’t help but notice the difference in views from one side of the ferry to the other.  The view looking south was dark and gloomy (I bumped up the light a bit in Photoshop) with heavy clouds and dark seas.

 

This view, looking north towards the aptly named Sunshine Coast of BC, was less than 50 steps away in the opposite direction.  It reminded me that we can always choose to change our viewpoint or our perspective on anything…especially if our present perspective isn’t working for us.  Going for a walk or listening to music or doing something…anything…that lifts the clouds, will work.  The situation hasn’t changed, but our perspective has.

This was a pretty obvious reminder, but I’ve been known to miss the subtle!

Hoping the sun is shining on you today…whether it’s cloudy and raining or not.  Blessings all-ways.

Sit There and Look Pretty

Today, I’m playing with Deb (D. Smith Kaich Jones) over at Emma Tree.  She asked us to use the phrase “just sit there and look pretty’ as a starting point for a creative project.

  

I came of age through the “burn your bra” 60’s when woman stopped shaving their legs, curling their hair and anything else that might have been thought of as trying to “look pretty”.  We wanted to be taken seriously, damn it!

This militancy isn’t an issue for women in the western world anymore.  We made our point and my daughter’s generation wonders what the big deal was all about; we’re women and we’re different…so let’s enjoy it!  It’s natural for them to enjoy their femininity…all the while, taking on the world in so many exciting ways.

 

 

The anger that this phrase might have stirred in me at one time, has long since disappeared.  I think I’d actually be thrilled just to be told to sit down after all the years of running around and “doing it all”.  I don’t feel the need to prove myself anymore…me?…sit down?…YES!! (Triple arm pump). 

And when you become a woman “of a certain age”, to be told you’re pretty is simply a lovely thing…it’s appreciated...not needed, no, but appreciated.  Interestingly, I found that turning fifty was quite liberating in that respect…the pressure was off to look youthful  and I was (mostly) secure enough to know that what’s important, is that I feel good about me.

In our maturity there's a new definition of beauty.  It has nothing to do with magazines and everything to do with smiling eyes and authentic laughter.  It has everything to do with the confidence of knowing we’ve walked through the fire and come out the other side knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can bend, but we won’t break. We’ve tested our metal and it can cut like a knife when it’s needed, yet bend to pay homage and respect to those who have touched our hearts.

 

 

 

These days, If someone tells me that I look pretty…then I know they’re obviously a person of good taste (wink)! 

So what do you think?  Does this phrase push any buttons for you?  Would you take it as an insult, a compliment…or would you just laugh?  I think it would really depend very much on the level of sincerity with which it was said.

My photographs are of an antique Chinese jewellery box dating from the Qing Dynasty . Women have been adorning themselves with pretty things since they tied the sabre tooth tiger’s tooth on a piece of leather and hung it around their necks!

 

Thanks for visiting dear friends…encourage each other.

Be Still

I recently (re)found a book that was given to me several years ago by a friend.  It’s not a book of quotes exactly, but rather short phrases taken from stories and poems, etc.  It’s call the The Literary Book of Answers and the idea is to take 10 or 15 seconds to concentrate on a question while holding the book in your hands.  The page it opens to is the answer to your question.  I’ve been having some fun taking pictures of a few of the pages…’cause you know I just love text in an image! 

After spending the morning the other day lounging around in bed, I finally came downstairs for nourishment and thought I’d take a few photo’s of some books. I pulled this one out of the bookcase and it opened to this page…which completely validated my morning of lying in bed!  Don’t you just love it when the Universe tells you not to do the laundry?

I actually have no problem with being physically still. I do it rather well…in fact, a little too well!   My challenge comes with stilling my mind!  I’m getting much better at it but like most of us, stilling the monkey mind (swinging from thought to thought to thought like monkey’s swing from branch to branch) is something I’m still working with but I’m much better at catching myself now, when I begin swinging through the tangled jungle of my thoughts.

When that happens, I breathe.

Breathing deeply, stills me.

It brings me back to center.

Maybe the message wasn’t about going back to bed after all but to remember “to use the tools” and still my heart. 

A wise direction.

 

Have a lovely day dear friends…play well together.

Foggy Thoughts

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbour and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

The sun is trying to burn it’s way through the fog, but not very successfully.  On days like these when the world seems as though it’s covered in a soft, grey blanket…that’s where I want to be too…and I am.  This day may just progress onward from my bed. 

Several years ago when I was in Vienna I toured through the summer palace of the Hapsburg’s…the very impressive Schoenbrunn, which was built to rival Versaille   I was intrigued to learn that one particularly regal bedroom was where Maria Theresa ruled her country…from her bed…for many of her forty years as Empress. She apparently created a public education system as well as a thriving economy in Austria…not to mention giving birth to 16 children, and all of this from her bed (one of those children was Marie Antoinette)!  Honestly, after all that, I’d be surprised if she ever got out of bed at all!

So here I sit, looking out the window at the fog…thinning to be sure, but still there…listening to the foghorns and lounging in bed with my computer on my lap.  I don’t have an empire to rule, I don’t live in palace like Schoenbrunn and I don’t have servants to wait on me (although Mr. I might disagree) but at the moment it feels very right to be sitting here.  So I brush away the fleeting thoughts that say I should get up and do laundry and let my mind drift in it’s own foggy way…swirling here and there and back again…and I wonder…

…what Empress Maria Theresa would have thought about ruling her empire from her bed with a lap top. 

I think she would have liked it a lot.

 

Blessings dear friends and encourage one another today.

How He Sees Me

Try handing your camera to a five year old someday and letting them be in charge of documenting what they see.  I’m obviously the one who’s usually taking E’s…and everyone else’s…photograph, so when he asked me a few weeks ago if he could take some pictures I said sure.

 

He took pictures of me…his nana…and it was really interesting for me to see me from his perspective!  I know I always tip my head to the side when I’m listening to people but it looks like I not only tip my head but my whole body when I’m listening to children!  And I don't usually have photographs taken from the perspective of looking upwards at me.

We had hit a point of low blood sugar…him, not me…and the camera got him through a cranky and plummeting to melt down few moments, until we could get him home and feed him.

 

It’s always interesting, enlightening, somewhat sobering and maybe even a little startling, to see yourself as others see you.  The camera…and children…have no filters!

Peaceful blessings and a happy creative day to everyone,

And then the well ran dry

September = Sunflowers (in my part of the world!)

No, I’m still not saying the “B” word… but I will say life has been mighty full for the past month.  I finally have the time and almost the energy, to show up here!  It’s all been great and wonderful but I can no longer pull off that intensity of not having “down time”. 

I’ve become used to easing into my day. 

I’ve become used to having time for myself. 

I’ve become used to a slower lifestyle.

…and I like it that way!

It amazes me when I think of the days when I had three children under the age of five with a husband whose work required travelling, and the days when I was a single mother of three and the days when I commuted for up to an hour and half each way to work.  Holy Mother of God is all I can say and no wonder my adrenals burned out!

There were days when I wondered how I would get through it all but I always did…you just do.  And now…well, this morning I had a long soak in my beautiful big tub with bubble bath and Epson salts and then went out for a leisurely breakfast.  I know my “full” days won’t last forever now and I can take the time I need to replenish the well when it runs dry. 

if your life feels like an insane ride on the bullet train and you’re longing to drift down stream on an inner tube…all I can say is, hang in there.

The day will come when the kids will all leave home.

The day will come when you’ll retire from work.

The day will come when your time is really yours.

It really will happen one day. 

And you’ll love it!

 

Thanks for sticking with me through my dry spell dear friends!

Casting Into September

I was poking around in my computer’s folders yesterday and found this picture that I took last March in Panama…oh so many months ago…and now here we are six months later and moving into another season!

 

 

I haven’t been out and about with my camera for ages so thought I’d post this one...it brings back sweet memories of the day that it was taken. 

After a week of rain on Bocas del Toro we were determined to get out of our apartment and hired a water taxi to take us to the nearby island of Caranero.  We were dropped off here at the Pickled Parrot…a thatched roof palapa built on posts in the water.  For several hours we sat contentedly sipping icy margarita’s and feasting on fresh seafood.  We were sheltered comfortably under the palapa with the warm rain coming down around us when these two fellows drifted by in their boat.  It was one of those beautiful afternoons when time seems literally timeless; over and over we watched the nets carefully cast, then drawn back in and cast yet again…a graceful ballet of skill, balance and strength.  Eventually the fishermen, still casting, drifted off and we went on our own way, boarding our boat taking us back to Bocas.

I’ll be away for a few days visiting with friends for this last long weekend of summer.  Enjoy your own weekend as we head into September dear friends!